PANDOC_MARKDOWN(5)PANDOC_MARKDOWN(5)NAMEpandoc_markdown - markdown syntax for pandoc(1)DESCRIPTION
Pandoc understands an extended and slightly revised version of John
Gruber's markdown syntax. This document explains the syntax, noting
differences from standard markdown. Except where noted, these differ‐
ences can be suppressed by using the markdown_strict format instead of
markdown. An extensions can be enabled by adding +EXTENSION to the
format name and disabled by adding -EXTENSION. For example, mark‐
down_strict+footnotes is strict markdown with footnotes enabled, while
markdown-footnotes-pipe_tables is pandoc's markdown without footnotes
or pipe tables.
PHILOSOPHY
Markdown is designed to be easy to write, and, even more importantly,
easy to read:
A Markdown-formatted document should be publishable as-is, as
plain text, without looking like it's been marked up with tags
or formatting instructions. -- John Gruber
This principle has guided pandoc's decisions in finding syntax for
tables, footnotes, and other extensions.
There is, however, one respect in which pandoc's aims are different
from the original aims of markdown. Whereas markdown was originally
designed with HTML generation in mind, pandoc is designed for multiple
output formats. Thus, while pandoc allows the embedding of raw HTML,
it discourages it, and provides other, non-HTMLish ways of representing
important document elements like definition lists, tables, mathematics,
and footnotes.
PARAGRAPHS
A paragraph is one or more lines of text followed by one or more blank
line. Newlines are treated as spaces, so you can reflow your para‐
graphs as you like. If you need a hard line break, put two or more
spaces at the end of a line.
Extension: escaped_line_breaks
A backslash followed by a newline is also a hard line break. Note: in
multiline and grid table cells, this is the only way to create a hard
line break, since trailing spaces in the cells are ignored.
HEADERS
There are two kinds of headers, Setext and atx.
Setext-style headers
A setext-style header is a line of text "underlined" with a row of =
signs (for a level one header) or - signs (for a level two header):
A level-one header
==================
A level-two header
------------------
The header text can contain inline formatting, such as emphasis (see
Inline formatting, below).
Atx-style headers
An Atx-style header consists of one to six # signs and a line of text,
optionally followed by any number of # signs. The number of # signs at
the beginning of the line is the header level:
## A level-two header
### A level-three header ###
As with setext-style headers, the header text can contain formatting:
# A level-one header with a [link](/url) and *emphasis*
Extension: blank_before_header
Standard markdown syntax does not require a blank line before a header.
Pandoc does require this (except, of course, at the beginning of the
document). The reason for the requirement is that it is all too easy
for a # to end up at the beginning of a line by accident (perhaps
through line wrapping). Consider, for example:
I like several of their flavors of ice cream:
#22, for example, and #5.
Header identifiers in HTML, LaTeX, and ConTeXt
Extension: header_attributes
Headers can be assigned attributes using this syntax at the end of the
line containing the header text:
{#identifier .class .class key=value key=value}
Thus, for example, the following headers will all be assigned the iden‐
tifier foo:
# My header {#foo}
## My header ## {#foo}
My other header {#foo}
---------------
(This syntax is compatible with PHP Markdown Extra.)
Note that although this syntax allows assignment of classes and
key/value attributes, writers generally don't use all of this informa‐
tion. Identifiers, classes, and key/value attributes are used in HTML
and HTML-based formats such as EPUB and slidy. Identifiers are used
for labels and link anchors in the LaTeX, ConTeXt, Textile, and Asci‐
iDoc writers.
Headers with the class unnumbered will not be numbered, even if --num‐
ber-sections is specified. A single hyphen (-) in an attribute context
is equivalent to .unnumbered, and preferable in non-English documents.
So,
# My header {-}
is just the same as
# My header {.unnumbered}
Extension: auto_identifiers
A header without an explicitly specified identifier will be automati‐
cally assigned a unique identifier based on the header text. To derive
the identifier from the header text,
· Remove all formatting, links, etc.
· Remove all footnotes.
· Remove all punctuation, except underscores, hyphens, and periods.
· Replace all spaces and newlines with hyphens.
· Convert all alphabetic characters to lowercase.
· Remove everything up to the first letter (identifiers may not begin
with a number or punctuation mark).
· If nothing is left after this, use the identifier section.
Thus, for example,
Header Identifier
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Header identifiers in HTML header-identifiers-in-html
Dogs?--in my house? dogs--in-my-house
HTML, S5, or RTF? html-s5-or-rtf
3. Applications applications
33 section
These rules should, in most cases, allow one to determine the identi‐
fier from the header text. The exception is when several headers have
the same text; in this case, the first will get an identifier as
described above; the second will get the same identifier with -1
appended; the third with -2; and so on.
These identifiers are used to provide link targets in the table of con‐
tents generated by the --toc|--table-of-contents option. They also
make it easy to provide links from one section of a document to
another. A link to this section, for example, might look like this:
See the section on
[header identifiers](#header-identifiers-in-html-latex-and-context).
Note, however, that this method of providing links to sections works
only in HTML, LaTeX, and ConTeXt formats.
If the --section-divs option is specified, then each section will be
wrapped in a div (or a section, if --html5 was specified), and the
identifier will be attached to the enclosing <div> (or <section>) tag
rather than the header itself. This allows entire sections to be
manipulated using javascript or treated differently in CSS.
Extension: implicit_header_references
Pandoc behaves as if reference links have been defined for each header.
So, instead of
[header identifiers](#header-identifiers-in-html)
you can simply write
[header identifiers]
or
[header identifiers][]
or
[the section on header identifiers][header identifiers]
If there are multiple headers with identical text, the corresponding
reference will link to the first one only, and you will need to use
explicit links to link to the others, as described above.
Unlike regular reference links, these references are case-sensitive.
Note: if you have defined an explicit identifier for a header, then
implicit references to it will not work.
BLOCK QUOTATIONS
Markdown uses email conventions for quoting blocks of text. A block
quotation is one or more paragraphs or other block elements (such as
lists or headers), with each line preceded by a > character and a
space. (The > need not start at the left margin, but it should not be
indented more than three spaces.)
> This is a block quote. This
> paragraph has two lines.
>
> 1. This is a list inside a block quote.
> 2. Second item.
A "lazy" form, which requires the > character only on the first line of
each block, is also allowed:
> This is a block quote. This
paragraph has two lines.
> 1. This is a list inside a block quote.
2. Second item.
Among the block elements that can be contained in a block quote are
other block quotes. That is, block quotes can be nested:
> This is a block quote.
>
> > A block quote within a block quote.
Extension: blank_before_blockquote
Standard markdown syntax does not require a blank line before a block
quote. Pandoc does require this (except, of course, at the beginning
of the document). The reason for the requirement is that it is all too
easy for a > to end up at the beginning of a line by accident (perhaps
through line wrapping). So, unless the markdown_strict format is used,
the following does not produce a nested block quote in pandoc:
> This is a block quote.
>> Nested.
VERBATIM (CODE) BLOCKS
Indented code blocks
A block of text indented four spaces (or one tab) is treated as verba‐
tim text: that is, special characters do not trigger special format‐
ting, and all spaces and line breaks are preserved. For example,
if (a > 3) {
moveShip(5 * gravity, DOWN);
}
The initial (four space or one tab) indentation is not considered part
of the verbatim text, and is removed in the output.
Note: blank lines in the verbatim text need not begin with four spaces.
Fenced code blocks
Extension: fenced_code_blocks
In addition to standard indented code blocks, Pandoc supports fenced
code blocks. These begin with a row of three or more tildes (~) or
backticks (`) and end with a row of tildes or backticks that must be at
least as long as the starting row. Everything between these lines is
treated as code. No indentation is necessary:
~~~~~~~
if (a > 3) {
moveShip(5 * gravity, DOWN);
}
~~~~~~~
Like regular code blocks, fenced code blocks must be separated from
surrounding text by blank lines.
If the code itself contains a row of tildes or backticks, just use a
longer row of tildes or backticks at the start and end:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~
code including tildes
~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Extension: fenced_code_attributes
Optionally, you may attach attributes to the code block using this syn‐
tax:
~~~~ {#mycode .haskell .numberLines startFrom="100"}
qsort [] = []
qsort (x:xs) = qsort (filter (< x) xs) ++ [x] ++
qsort (filter (>= x) xs)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here mycode is an identifier, haskell and numberLines are classes, and
startFrom is an attribute with value 100. Some output formats can use
this information to do syntax highlighting. Currently, the only output
formats that uses this information are HTML and LaTeX. If highlighting
is supported for your output format and language, then the code block
above will appear highlighted, with numbered lines. (To see which lan‐
guages are supported, do pandoc --version.) Otherwise, the code block
above will appear as follows:
<pre id="mycode" class="haskell numberLines" startFrom="100">
<code>
...
</code>
</pre>
A shortcut form can also be used for specifying the language of the
code block:
```haskell
qsort [] = []
```
This is equivalent to:
``` {.haskell}
qsort [] = []
```
If the fenced_code_attributes extension is disabled, but input contains
class attribute(s) for the codeblock, the first class attribute will be
printed after the opening fence as a bare word.
To prevent all highlighting, use the --no-highlight flag. To set the
highlighting style, use --highlight-style.
LINE BLOCKS
Extension: line_blocks
A line block is a sequence of lines beginning with a vertical bar (|)
followed by a space. The division into lines will be preserved in the
output, as will any leading spaces; otherwise, the lines will be for‐
matted as markdown. This is useful for verse and addresses:
| The limerick packs laughs anatomical
| In space that is quite economical.
| But the good ones I've seen
| So seldom are clean
| And the clean ones so seldom are comical
| 200 Main St.
| Berkeley, CA 94718
The lines can be hard-wrapped if needed, but the continuation line must
begin with a space.
| The Right Honorable Most Venerable and Righteous Samuel L.
Constable, Jr.
| 200 Main St.
| Berkeley, CA 94718
This syntax is borrowed from reStructuredText.
LISTS
Bullet lists
A bullet list is a list of bulleted list items. A bulleted list item
begins with a bullet (*, +, or -). Here is a simple example:
* one
* two
* three
This will produce a "compact" list. If you want a "loose" list, in
which each item is formatted as a paragraph, put spaces between the
items:
* one
* two
* three
The bullets need not be flush with the left margin; they may be
indented one, two, or three spaces. The bullet must be followed by
whitespace.
List items look best if subsequent lines are flush with the first line
(after the bullet):
* here is my first
list item.
* and my second.
But markdown also allows a "lazy" format:
* here is my first
list item.
* and my second.
The four-space rule
A list item may contain multiple paragraphs and other block-level con‐
tent. However, subsequent paragraphs must be preceded by a blank line
and indented four spaces or a tab. The list will look better if the
first paragraph is aligned with the rest:
* First paragraph.
Continued.
* Second paragraph. With a code block, which must be indented
eight spaces:
{ code }
List items may include other lists. In this case the preceding blank
line is optional. The nested list must be indented four spaces or one
tab:
* fruits
+ apples
- macintosh
- red delicious
+ pears
+ peaches
* vegetables
+ broccoli
+ chard
As noted above, markdown allows you to write list items "lazily,"
instead of indenting continuation lines. However, if there are multi‐
ple paragraphs or other blocks in a list item, the first line of each
must be indented.
+ A lazy, lazy, list
item.
+ Another one; this looks
bad but is legal.
Second paragraph of second
list item.
Note: Although the four-space rule for continuation paragraphs comes
from the official markdown syntax guide, the reference implementation,
Markdown.pl, does not follow it. So pandoc will give different results
than Markdown.pl when authors have indented continuation paragraphs
fewer than four spaces.
The markdown syntax guide is not explicit whether the four-space rule
applies to all block-level content in a list item; it only mentions
paragraphs and code blocks. But it implies that the rule applies to
all block-level content (including nested lists), and pandoc interprets
it that way.
Ordered lists
Ordered lists work just like bulleted lists, except that the items
begin with enumerators rather than bullets.
In standard markdown, enumerators are decimal numbers followed by a
period and a space. The numbers themselves are ignored, so there is no
difference between this list:
1. one
2. two
3. three
and this one:
5. one
7. two
1. three
Extension: fancy_lists
Unlike standard markdown, Pandoc allows ordered list items to be marked
with uppercase and lowercase letters and roman numerals, in addition to
arabic numerals. List markers may be enclosed in parentheses or fol‐
lowed by a single right-parentheses or period. They must be separated
from the text that follows by at least one space, and, if the list
marker is a capital letter with a period, by at least two spaces.[1]
The fancy_lists extension also allows '#' to be used as an ordered list
marker in place of a numeral:
#. one
#. two
Extension: startnum
Pandoc also pays attention to the type of list marker used, and to the
starting number, and both of these are preserved where possible in the
output format. Thus, the following yields a list with numbers followed
by a single parenthesis, starting with 9, and a sublist with lowercase
roman numerals:
9) Ninth
10) Tenth
11) Eleventh
i. subone
ii. subtwo
iii. subthree
Pandoc will start a new list each time a different type of list marker
is used. So, the following will create three lists:
(2) Two
(5) Three
1. Four
* Five
If default list markers are desired, use #.:
#. one
#. two
#. three
Definition lists
Extension: definition_lists
Pandoc supports definition lists, using the syntax of PHP Markdown
Extra with some extensions.[2]
Term 1
: Definition 1
Term 2 with *inline markup*
: Definition 2
{ some code, part of Definition 2 }
Third paragraph of definition 2.
Each term must fit on one line, which may optionally be followed by a
blank line, and must be followed by one or more definitions. A defini‐
tion begins with a colon or tilde, which may be indented one or two
spaces.
A term may have multiple definitions, and each definition may consist
of one or more block elements (paragraph, code block, list, etc.), each
indented four spaces or one tab stop. The body of the definition
(including the first line, aside from the colon or tilde) should be
indented four spaces. However, as with other markdown lists, you can
"lazily" omit indentation except at the beginning of a paragraph or
other block element:
Term 1
: Definition
with lazy continuation.
Second paragraph of the definition.
If you leave space before the definition (as in the example above), the
text of the definition will be treated as a paragraph. In some output
formats, this will mean greater spacing between term/definition pairs.
For a more compact definition list, omit the space before the defini‐
tion:
Term 1
~ Definition 1
Term 2
~ Definition 2a
~ Definition 2b
Note that space between items in a definition list is required. (A
variant that loosens this requirement, but disallows "lazy" hard wrap‐
ping, can be activated with compact_definition_lists: see Non-pandoc
extensions, below.)
Numbered example lists
Extension: example_lists
The special list marker @ can be used for sequentially numbered exam‐
ples. The first list item with a @ marker will be numbered '1', the
next '2', and so on, throughout the document. The numbered examples
need not occur in a single list; each new list using @ will take up
where the last stopped. So, for example:
(@) My first example will be numbered (1).
(@) My second example will be numbered (2).
Explanation of examples.
(@) My third example will be numbered (3).
Numbered examples can be labeled and referred to elsewhere in the docu‐
ment:
(@good) This is a good example.
As (@good) illustrates, ...
The label can be any string of alphanumeric characters, underscores, or
hyphens.
Compact and loose lists
Pandoc behaves differently from Markdown.pl on some "edge cases"
involving lists. Consider this source:
+ First
+ Second:
- Fee
- Fie
- Foe
+ Third
Pandoc transforms this into a "compact list" (with no <p> tags around
"First", "Second", or "Third"), while markdown puts <p> tags around
"Second" and "Third" (but not "First"), because of the blank space
around "Third". Pandoc follows a simple rule: if the text is followed
by a blank line, it is treated as a paragraph. Since "Second" is fol‐
lowed by a list, and not a blank line, it isn't treated as a paragraph.
The fact that the list is followed by a blank line is irrelevant.
(Note: Pandoc works this way even when the markdown_strict format is
specified. This behavior is consistent with the official markdown syn‐
tax description, even though it is different from that of Markdown.pl.)
Ending a list
What if you want to put an indented code block after a list?
- item one
- item two
{ my code block }
Trouble! Here pandoc (like other markdown implementations) will treat
{ my code block } as the second paragraph of item two, and not as a
code block.
To "cut off" the list after item two, you can insert some non-indented
content, like an HTML comment, which won't produce visible output in
any format:
- item one
- item two
<!-- end of list -->
{ my code block }
You can use the same trick if you want two consecutive lists instead of
one big list:
1. one
2. two
3. three
<!-- -->
1. uno
2. dos
3. tres
HORIZONTAL RULES
A line containing a row of three or more *, -, or _ characters (option‐
ally separated by spaces) produces a horizontal rule:
* * * *
---------------
TABLES
Four kinds of tables may be used. The first three kinds presuppose the
use of a fixed-width font, such as Courier. The fourth kind can be
used with proportionally spaced fonts, as it does not require lining up
columns.
Extension: table_captions
A caption may optionally be provided with all 4 kinds of tables (as
illustrated in the examples below). A caption is a paragraph beginning
with the string Table: (or just :), which will be stripped off. It may
appear either before or after the table.
Extension: simple_tables
Simple tables look like this:
Right Left Center Default
------------- ---------- -------
12 12 12 12
123 123 123 123
1 1 1 1
Table: Demonstration of simple table syntax.
The headers and table rows must each fit on one line. Column align‐
ments are determined by the position of the header text relative to the
dashed line below it:[3]
· If the dashed line is flush with the header text on the right side
but extends beyond it on the left, the column is right-aligned.
· If the dashed line is flush with the header text on the left side but
extends beyond it on the right, the column is left-aligned.
· If the dashed line extends beyond the header text on both sides, the
column is centered.
· If the dashed line is flush with the header text on both sides, the
default alignment is used (in most cases, this will be left).
The table must end with a blank line, or a line of dashes followed by a
blank line.
The column headers may be omitted, provided a dashed line is used to
end the table. For example:
------------- ---------- -------
12 12 12 12
123 123 123 123
1 1 1 1
------------- ---------- -------
When headers are omitted, column alignments are determined on the basis
of the first line of the table body. So, in the tables above, the col‐
umns would be right, left, center, and right aligned, respectively.
Extension: multiline_tables
Multiline tables allow headers and table rows to span multiple lines of
text (but cells that span multiple columns or rows of the table are not
supported). Here is an example:
-------------------------------------------------------------
Centered Default Right Left
Header Aligned Aligned Aligned
----------- ------- --------------- -------------------------
First row 12.0 Example of a row that
spans multiple lines.
Second row 5.0 Here's another one. Note
the blank line between
rows.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Table: Here's the caption. It, too, may span
multiple lines.
These work like simple tables, but with the following differences:
· They must begin with a row of dashes, before the header text (unless
the headers are omitted).
· They must end with a row of dashes, then a blank line.
· The rows must be separated by blank lines.
In multiline tables, the table parser pays attention to the widths of
the columns, and the writers try to reproduce these relative widths in
the output. So, if you find that one of the columns is too narrow in
the output, try widening it in the markdown source.
Headers may be omitted in multiline tables as well as simple tables:
----------- ------- --------------- -------------------------
First row 12.0 Example of a row that
spans multiple lines.
Second row 5.0 Here's another one. Note
the blank line between
rows.
----------- ------- --------------- -------------------------
: Here's a multiline table without headers.
It is possible for a multiline table to have just one row, but the row
should be followed by a blank line (and then the row of dashes that
ends the table), or the table may be interpreted as a simple table.
Extension: grid_tables
Grid tables look like this:
: Sample grid table.
+---------------+---------------+--------------------+
| Fruit | Price | Advantages |
+===============+===============+====================+
| Bananas | $1.34 | - built-in wrapper |
| | | - bright color |
+---------------+---------------+--------------------+
| Oranges | $2.10 | - cures scurvy |
| | | - tasty |
+---------------+---------------+--------------------+
The row of =s separates the header from the table body, and can be
omitted for a headerless table. The cells of grid tables may contain
arbitrary block elements (multiple paragraphs, code blocks, lists,
etc.). Alignments are not supported, nor are cells that span multiple
columns or rows. Grid tables can be created easily using Emacs table
mode.
Extension: pipe_tables
Pipe tables look like this:
| Right | Left | Default | Center |
|------:|:-----|---------|:------:|
| 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 |
| 123 | 123 | 123 | 123 |
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
: Demonstration of pipe table syntax.
The syntax is the same as in PHP markdown extra. The beginning and
ending pipe characters are optional, but pipes are required between all
columns. The colons indicate column alignment as shown. The header
can be omitted, but the horizontal line must still be included, as it
defines column alignments.
Since the pipes indicate column boundaries, columns need not be verti‐
cally aligned, as they are in the above example. So, this is a per‐
fectly legal (though ugly) pipe table:
fruit| price
-----|-----:
apple|2.05
pear|1.37
orange|3.09
The cells of pipe tables cannot contain block elements like paragraphs
and lists, and cannot span multiple lines. Note also that in LaTeX/PDF
output, the cells produced by pipe tables will not wrap, since there is
no information available about relative widths. If you want content to
wrap within cells, use multiline or grid tables.
Note: Pandoc also recognizes pipe tables of the following form, as can
produced by Emacs' orgtbl-mode:
| One | Two |
|-----+-------|
| my | table |
| is | nice |
The difference is that + is used instead of |. Other orgtbl features
are not supported. In particular, to get non-default column alignment,
you'll need to add colons as above.
METADATA BLOCKS
Extension: pandoc_title_block
If the file begins with a title block
% title
% author(s) (separated by semicolons)
% date
it will be parsed as bibliographic information, not regular text. (It
will be used, for example, in the title of standalone LaTeX or HTML
output.) The block may contain just a title, a title and an author, or
all three elements. If you want to include an author but no title, or
a title and a date but no author, you need a blank line:
%
% Author
% My title
%
% June 15, 2006
The title may occupy multiple lines, but continuation lines must begin
with leading space, thus:
% My title
on multiple lines
If a document has multiple authors, the authors may be put on separate
lines with leading space, or separated by semicolons, or both. So, all
of the following are equivalent:
% Author One
Author Two
% Author One; Author Two
% Author One;
Author Two
The date must fit on one line.
All three metadata fields may contain standard inline formatting (ital‐
ics, links, footnotes, etc.).
Title blocks will always be parsed, but they will affect the output
only when the --standalone (-s) option is chosen. In HTML output,
titles will appear twice: once in the document head -- this is the
title that will appear at the top of the window in a browser -- and
once at the beginning of the document body. The title in the document
head can have an optional prefix attached (--title-prefix or -T
option). The title in the body appears as an H1 element with class
"title", so it can be suppressed or reformatted with CSS. If a title
prefix is specified with -T and no title block appears in the document,
the title prefix will be used by itself as the HTML title.
The man page writer extracts a title, man page section number, and
other header and footer information from the title line. The title is
assumed to be the first word on the title line, which may optionally
end with a (single-digit) section number in parentheses. (There should
be no space between the title and the parentheses.) Anything after
this is assumed to be additional footer and header text. A single pipe
character (|) should be used to separate the footer text from the
header text. Thus,
% PANDOC(1)
will yield a man page with the title PANDOC and section 1.
% PANDOC(1) Pandoc User Manuals
will also have "Pandoc User Manuals" in the footer.
% PANDOC(1) Pandoc User Manuals | Version 4.0
will also have "Version 4.0" in the header.
Extension: yaml_metadata_block
A YAML metadata block is a valid YAML object, delimited by a line of
three hyphens (---) at the top and a line of three hyphens (---) or
three dots (...) at the bottom. A YAML metadata block may occur any‐
where in the document, but if it is not at the beginning, it must be
preceded by a blank line. (Note that, because of the way pandoc con‐
catenates input files when several are provided, you may also keep the
metadata in a separate YAML file and pass it to pandoc as an argument,
along with your markdown files:
pandoc chap1.md chap2.md chap3.md metadata.yaml -s -o book.html
Just be sure that the YAML file begins with --- and ends with --- or
....)
Metadata will be taken from the fields of the YAML object and added to
any existing document metadata. Metadata can contain lists and objects
(nested arbitrarily), but all string scalars will be interpreted as
markdown. Fields with names ending in an underscore will be ignored by
pandoc. (They may be given a role by external processors.)
A document may contain multiple metadata blocks. The metadata fields
will be combined through a left-biased union: if two metadata blocks
attempt to set the same field, the value from the first block will be
taken.
When pandoc is used with -t markdown to create a markdown document, a
YAML metadata block will be produced only if the -s/--standalone option
is used. All of the metadata will appear in a single block at the
beginning of the document.
Note that YAML escaping rules must be followed. Thus, for example, if
a title contains a colon, it must be quoted. The pipe character (|)
can be used to begin an indented block that will be interpreted liter‐
ally, without need for escaping. This form is necessary when the field
contains blank lines:
---
title: 'This is the title: it contains a colon'
author:
- name: Author One
affiliation: University of Somewhere
- name: Author Two
affiliation: University of Nowhere
tags: [nothing, nothingness]
abstract: |
This is the abstract.
It consists of two paragraphs.
...
Template variables will be set automatically from the metadata. Thus,
for example, in writing HTML, the variable abstract will be set to the
HTML equivalent of the markdown in the abstract field:
<p>This is the abstract.</p>
<p>It consists of two paragraphs.</p>
Note: The author variable in the default templates expects a simple
list or string. To use the structured authors in the example, you
would need a custom template. For example:
$for(author)$
$if(author.name)$
$author.name$$if(author.affiliation)$ ($author.affiliation$)$endif$
$else$
$author$
$endif$
$endfor$
BACKSLASH ESCAPES
Extension: all_symbols_escapable
Except inside a code block or inline code, any punctuation or space
character preceded by a backslash will be treated literally, even if it
would normally indicate formatting. Thus, for example, if one writes
*\*hello\**
one will get
<em>*hello*</em>
instead of
<strong>hello</strong>
This rule is easier to remember than standard markdown's rule, which
allows only the following characters to be backslash-escaped:
\`*_{}[]()>#+-.!
(However, if the markdown_strict format is used, the standard markdown
rule will be used.)
A backslash-escaped space is parsed as a nonbreaking space. It will
appear in TeX output as ~ and in HTML and XML as \ or \ .
A backslash-escaped newline (i.e. a backslash occurring at the end of
a line) is parsed as a hard line break. It will appear in TeX output
as \\ and in HTML as <br />. This is a nice alternative to markdown's
"invisible" way of indicating hard line breaks using two trailing spa‐
ces on a line.
Backslash escapes do not work in verbatim contexts.
SMART PUNCTUATION
Extension
If the --smart option is specified, pandoc will produce typographically
correct output, converting straight quotes to curly quotes, --- to
em-dashes, -- to en-dashes, and ... to ellipses. Nonbreaking spaces
are inserted after certain abbreviations, such as "Mr."
Note: if your LaTeX template uses the csquotes package, pandoc will
detect automatically this and use \enquote{...} for quoted text.
INLINE FORMATTING
Emphasis
To emphasize some text, surround it with *s or _, like this:
This text is _emphasized with underscores_, and this
is *emphasized with asterisks*.
Double * or _ produces strong emphasis:
This is **strong emphasis** and __with underscores__.
A * or _ character surrounded by spaces, or backslash-escaped, will not
trigger emphasis:
This is * not emphasized *, and \*neither is this\*.
Extension: intraword_underscores
Because _ is sometimes used inside words and identifiers, pandoc does
not interpret a _ surrounded by alphanumeric characters as an emphasis
marker. If you want to emphasize just part of a word, use *:
feas*ible*, not feas*able*.
Strikeout
Extension: strikeout
To strikeout a section of text with a horizontal line, begin and end it
with ~~. Thus, for example,
This ~~is deleted text.~~
Superscripts and subscripts
Extension: superscript, subscript
Superscripts may be written by surrounding the superscripted text by ^
characters; subscripts may be written by surrounding the subscripted
text by ~ characters. Thus, for example,
H~2~O is a liquid. 2^10^ is 1024.
If the superscripted or subscripted text contains spaces, these spaces
must be escaped with backslashes. (This is to prevent accidental
superscripting and subscripting through the ordinary use of ~ and ^.)
Thus, if you want the letter P with 'a cat' in subscripts, use
P~a\ cat~, not P~a cat~.
Verbatim
To make a short span of text verbatim, put it inside backticks:
What is the difference between `>>=` and `>>`?
If the verbatim text includes a backtick, use double backticks:
Here is a literal backtick `` ` ``.
(The spaces after the opening backticks and before the closing back‐
ticks will be ignored.)
The general rule is that a verbatim span starts with a string of con‐
secutive backticks (optionally followed by a space) and ends with a
string of the same number of backticks (optionally preceded by a
space).
Note that backslash-escapes (and other markdown constructs) do not work
in verbatim contexts:
This is a backslash followed by an asterisk: `\*`.
Extension: inline_code_attributes
Attributes can be attached to verbatim text, just as with fenced code
blocks:
`<$>`{.haskell}
Small caps
To write small caps, you can use an HTML span tag:
<span style="font-variant:small-caps;">Small caps</span>
(The semicolon is optional and there may be space after the colon.)
This will work in all output formats that support small caps.
MATH
Extension: tex_math_dollars
Anything between two $ characters will be treated as TeX math. The
opening $ must have a non-space character immediately to its right,
while the closing $ must have a non-space character immediately to its
left, and must not be followed immediately by a digit. Thus,
$20,000 and $30,000 won't parse as math. If for some reason you need
to enclose text in literal $ characters, backslash-escape them and they
won't be treated as math delimiters.
TeX math will be printed in all output formats. How it is rendered
depends on the output format:
Markdown, LaTeX, Org-Mode, ConTeXt
It will appear verbatim between $ characters.
reStructuredText
It will be rendered using an interpreted text role :math:, as
described here
AsciiDoc
It will be rendered as latexmath:[...].
Texinfo
It will be rendered inside a @math command.
groff man
It will be rendered verbatim without $'s.
MediaWiki, DokuWiki
It will be rendered inside <math> tags.
Textile
It will be rendered inside <span class="math"> tags.
RTF, OpenDocument, ODT
It will be rendered, if possible, using unicode characters, and
will otherwise appear verbatim.
Docbook
If the --mathml flag is used, it will be rendered using mathml
in an inlineequation or informalequation tag. Otherwise it will
be rendered, if possible, using unicode characters.
Docx It will be rendered using OMML math markup.
FictionBook2
If the --webtex option is used, formulas are rendered as images
using Google Charts or other compatible web service, downloaded
and embedded in the e-book. Otherwise, they will appear verba‐
tim.
HTML, Slidy, DZSlides, S5, EPUB
The way math is rendered in HTML will depend on the command-line
options selected:
1. The default is to render TeX math as far as possible using
unicode characters, as with RTF, DocBook, and OpenDocument
output. Formulas are put inside a span with class="math", so
that they may be styled differently from the surrounding text
if needed.
2. If the --latexmathml option is used, TeX math will be dis‐
played between $ or $$ characters and put in <span> tags with
class LaTeX. The LaTeXMathML script will be used to render
it as formulas. (This trick does not work in all browsers,
but it works in Firefox. In browsers that do not support
LaTeXMathML, TeX math will appear verbatim between $ charac‐
ters.)
3. If the --jsmath option is used, TeX math will be put inside
<span> tags (for inline math) or <div> tags (for display
math) with class math. The jsMath script will be used to
render it.
4. If the --mimetex option is used, the mimeTeX CGI script will
be called to generate images for each TeX formula. This
should work in all browsers. The --mimetex option takes an
optional URL as argument. If no URL is specified, it will be
assumed that the mimeTeX CGI script is at /cgi-bin/mime‐
tex.cgi.
5. If the --gladtex option is used, TeX formulas will be
enclosed in <eq> tags in the HTML output. The resulting htex
file may then be processed by gladTeX, which will produce
image files for each formula and an html file with links to
these images. So, the procedure is:
pandoc -s --gladtex myfile.txt -o myfile.htex
gladtex -d myfile-images myfile.htex
# produces myfile.html and images in myfile-images
6. If the --webtex option is used, TeX formulas will be con‐
verted to <img> tags that link to an external script that
converts formulas to images. The formula will be URL-encoded
and concatenated with the URL provided. If no URL is speci‐
fied, the Google Chart API will be used
(http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=tx&chl=).
7. If the --mathjax option is used, TeX math will be displayed
between \(...\) (for inline math) or \[...\] (for display
math) and put in <span> tags with class math. The MathJax
script will be used to render it as formulas.
RAW HTML
Extension: raw_html
Markdown allows you to insert raw HTML (or DocBook) anywhere in a docu‐
ment (except verbatim contexts, where <, >, and & are interpreted lit‐
erally). (Technically this is not an extension, since standard mark‐
down allows it, but it has been made an extension so that it can be
disabled if desired.)
The raw HTML is passed through unchanged in HTML, S5, Slidy, Slideous,
DZSlides, EPUB, Markdown, and Textile output, and suppressed in other
formats.
Extension: markdown_in_html_blocks
Standard markdown allows you to include HTML "blocks": blocks of HTML
between balanced tags that are separated from the surrounding text with
blank lines, and start and end at the left margin. Within these
blocks, everything is interpreted as HTML, not markdown; so (for exam‐
ple), * does not signify emphasis.
Pandoc behaves this way when the markdown_strict format is used; but by
default, pandoc interprets material between HTML block tags as mark‐
down. Thus, for example, Pandoc will turn
<table>
<tr>
<td>*one*</td>
<td>[a link](http://google.com)</td>
</tr>
</table>
into
<table>
<tr>
<td><em>one</em></td>
<td><a href="http://google.com">a link</a></td>
</tr>
</table>
whereas Markdown.pl will preserve it as is.
There is one exception to this rule: text between <script> and <style>
tags is not interpreted as markdown.
This departure from standard markdown should make it easier to mix
markdown with HTML block elements. For example, one can surround a
block of markdown text with <div> tags without preventing it from being
interpreted as markdown.
Extension: native_divs
Use native pandoc Div blocks for content inside <div> tags. For the
most part this should give the same output as markdown_in_html_blocks,
but it makes it easier to write pandoc filters to manipulate groups of
blocks.
Extension: native_spans
Use native pandoc Span blocks for content inside <span> tags. For the
most part this should give the same output as raw_html, but it makes it
easier to write pandoc filters to manipulate groups of inlines.
RAW TEX
Extension: raw_tex
In addition to raw HTML, pandoc allows raw LaTeX, TeX, and ConTeXt to
be included in a document. Inline TeX commands will be preserved and
passed unchanged to the LaTeX and ConTeXt writers. Thus, for example,
you can use LaTeX to include BibTeX citations:
This result was proved in \cite{jones.1967}.
Note that in LaTeX environments, like
\begin{tabular}{|l|l|}\hline
Age & Frequency \\ \hline
18--25 & 15 \\
26--35 & 33 \\
36--45 & 22 \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
the material between the begin and end tags will be interpreted as raw
LaTeX, not as markdown.
Inline LaTeX is ignored in output formats other than Markdown, LaTeX,
and ConTeXt.
LATEX MACROS
Extension: latex_macros
For output formats other than LaTeX, pandoc will parse LaTeX \newcom‐
mand and \renewcommand definitions and apply the resulting macros to
all LaTeX math. So, for example, the following will work in all output
formats, not just LaTeX:
⟨a, b, c⟩
In LaTeX output, the \newcommand definition will simply be passed
unchanged to the output.
LINKS
Markdown allows links to be specified in several ways.
Automatic links
If you enclose a URL or email address in pointy brackets, it will
become a link:
<http://google.com>
<sam@green.eggs.ham>
Inline links
An inline link consists of the link text in square brackets, followed
by the URL in parentheses. (Optionally, the URL can be followed by a
link title, in quotes.)
This is an [inline link](/url), and here's [one with
a title](http://fsf.org "click here for a good time!").
There can be no space between the bracketed part and the parenthesized
part. The link text can contain formatting (such as emphasis), but the
title cannot.
Email addresses in inline links are not autodetected, so they have to
be prefixed with mailto:
[Write me!](mailto:sam@green.eggs.ham)
Reference links
An explicit reference link has two parts, the link itself and the link
definition, which may occur elsewhere in the document (either before or
after the link).
The link consists of link text in square brackets, followed by a label
in square brackets. (There can be space between the two.) The link
definition consists of the bracketed label, followed by a colon and a
space, followed by the URL, and optionally (after a space) a link title
either in quotes or in parentheses. The label must not be parseable as
a citation (assuming the citations extension is enabled): citations
take precedence over link labels.
Here are some examples:
[my label 1]: /foo/bar.html "My title, optional"
[my label 2]: /foo
[my label 3]: http://fsf.org (The free software foundation)
[my label 4]: /bar#special 'A title in single quotes'
The URL may optionally be surrounded by angle brackets:
[my label 5]: <http://foo.bar.baz>
The title may go on the next line:
[my label 3]: http://fsf.org
"The free software foundation"
Note that link labels are not case sensitive. So, this will work:
Here is [my link][FOO]
[Foo]: /bar/baz
In an implicit reference link, the second pair of brackets is empty, or
omitted entirely:
See [my website][], or [my website].
[my website]: http://foo.bar.baz
Note: In Markdown.pl and most other markdown implementations, reference
link definitions cannot occur in nested constructions such as list
items or block quotes. Pandoc lifts this arbitrary seeming restric‐
tion. So the following is fine in pandoc, though not in most other
implementations:
> My block [quote].
>
> [quote]: /foo
Internal links
To link to another section of the same document, use the automatically
generated identifier (see Header identifiers in HTML, LaTeX, and Con‐
TeXt, below). For example:
See the [Introduction](#introduction).
or
See the [Introduction].
[Introduction]: #introduction
Internal links are currently supported for HTML formats (including HTML
slide shows and EPUB), LaTeX, and ConTeXt.
IMAGES
A link immediately preceded by a ! will be treated as an image. The
link text will be used as the image's alt text:
![movie reel]
[movie reel]: movie.gif
Extension: implicit_figures
An image occurring by itself in a paragraph will be rendered as a fig‐
ure with a caption.[4] (In LaTeX, a figure environment will be used; in
HTML, the image will be placed in a div with class figure, together
with a caption in a p with class caption.) The image's alt text will be
used as the caption.
If you just want a regular inline image, just make sure it is not the
only thing in the paragraph. One way to do this is to insert a non‐
breaking space after the image:
\
FOOTNOTES
Extension: footnotes
Pandoc's markdown allows footnotes, using the following syntax:
Here is a footnote reference,[^1] and another.[^longnote]
[^1]: Here is the footnote.
[^longnote]: Here's one with multiple blocks.
Subsequent paragraphs are indented to show that they
belong to the previous footnote.
{ some.code }
The whole paragraph can be indented, or just the first
line. In this way, multi-paragraph footnotes work like
multi-paragraph list items.
This paragraph won't be part of the note, because it
isn't indented.
The identifiers in footnote references may not contain spaces, tabs, or
newlines. These identifiers are used only to correlate the footnote
reference with the note itself; in the output, footnotes will be num‐
bered sequentially.
The footnotes themselves need not be placed at the end of the document.
They may appear anywhere except inside other block elements (lists,
block quotes, tables, etc.).
Extension: inline_notes
Inline footnotes are also allowed (though, unlike regular notes, they
cannot contain multiple paragraphs). The syntax is as follows:
Here is an inline note.^[Inlines notes are easier to write, since
you don't have to pick an identifier and move down to type the
note.]
Inline and regular footnotes may be mixed freely.
CITATIONS
Extension: citations
Using an external filter, pandoc-citeproc, pandoc can automatically
generate citations and a bibliography in a number of styles. Basic
usage is
pandoc --filter pandoc-citeproc myinput.txt
In order to use this feature, you will need to specify a bibliography
file using the bibliography metadata field in a YAML metadata section.
The bibliography may have any of these formats:
Format File extension
───────────────────────────────
MODS .mods
BibLaTeX .bib
BibTeX .bibtex
RIS .ris
EndNote .enl
EndNote XML .xml
ISI .wos
MEDLINE .medline
Copac .copac
JSON citeproc .json
Note that .bib can generally be used with both BibTeX and BibLaTeX
files, but you can use .bibtex to force BibTeX.
As an alternative to specifying a bibliography file, you can include
the citation data directly in the references field of the document's
YAML metadata. The field should contain an array of YAML-encoded ref‐
erences, for example:
---
references:
- id: fenner2012a
title: One-click science marketing
author:
- family: Fenner
given: Martin
container-title: Nature Materials
volume: 11
URL: 'http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nmat3283'
DOI: 10.1038/nmat3283
issue: 4
publisher: Nature Publishing Group
page: 261-263
type: article-journal
issued:
year: 2012
month: 3
...
(The program mods2yaml, which comes with pandoc-citeproc, can help pro‐
duce these from a MODS reference collection.)
By default, pandoc-citeproc will use a Chicago author-date format for
citations and references. To use another style, you will need to spec‐
ify a CSL 1.0 style file in the csl metadata field. A primer on creat‐
ing and modifying CSL styles can be found at http://citation‐
styles.org/downloads/primer.html. A repository of CSL styles can be
found at https://github.com/citation-style-language/styles. See also
http://zotero.org/styles for easy browsing.
Citations go inside square brackets and are separated by semicolons.
Each citation must have a key, composed of '@' + the citation identi‐
fier from the database, and may optionally have a prefix, a locator,
and a suffix. The citation key must begin with a letter or _, and may
contain alphanumerics, _, and internal punctuation characters
(:.#$%&-+?<>~/). Here are some examples:
Blah blah [see @doe99, pp. 33-35; also @smith04, ch. 1].
Blah blah [@doe99, pp. 33-35, 38-39 and *passim*].
Blah blah [@smith04; @doe99].
A minus sign (-) before the @ will suppress mention of the author in
the citation. This can be useful when the author is already mentioned
in the text:
Smith says blah [-@smith04].
You can also write an in-text citation, as follows:
@smith04 says blah.
@smith04 [p. 33] says blah.
If the style calls for a list of works cited, it will be placed at the
end of the document. Normally, you will want to end your document with
an appropriate header:
last paragraph...
# References
The bibliography will be inserted after this header. Note that the
unnumbered class will be added to this header, so that the section will
not be numbered.
If you want to include items in the bibliography without actually cit‐
ing them in the body text, you can define a dummy nocite metadata field
and put the citations there:
---
nocite: |
@item1, @item2
...
@item3
In this example, the document will contain a citation for item3 only,
but the bibliography will contain entries for item1, item2, and item3.
NON-PANDOC EXTENSIONS
The following markdown syntax extensions are not enabled by default in
pandoc, but may be enabled by adding +EXTENSION to the format name,
where EXTENSION is the name of the extension. Thus, for example, mark‐
down+hard_line_breaks is markdown with hard line breaks.
Extension: lists_without_preceding_blankline
Allow a list to occur right after a paragraph, with no intervening
blank space.
Extension: hard_line_breaks
Causes all newlines within a paragraph to be interpreted as hard line
breaks instead of spaces.
Extension: ignore_line_breaks
Causes newlines within a paragraph to be ignored, rather than being
treated as spaces or as hard line breaks. This option is intended for
use with East Asian languages where spaces are not used between words,
but text is divided into lines for readability.
Extension: tex_math_single_backslash
Causes anything between \( and \) to be interpreted as inline TeX math,
and anything between \[ and \] to be interpreted as display TeX math.
Note: a drawback of this extension is that it precludes escaping ( and
[.
Extension: tex_math_double_backslash
Causes anything between \\( and \\) to be interpreted as inline TeX
math, and anything between \\[ and \\] to be interpreted as display TeX
math.
Extension: markdown_attribute
By default, pandoc interprets material inside block-level tags as mark‐
down. This extension changes the behavior so that markdown is only
parsed inside block-level tags if the tags have the attribute mark‐
down=1.
Extension: mmd_title_block
Enables a MultiMarkdown style title block at the top of the document,
for example:
Title: My title
Author: John Doe
Date: September 1, 2008
Comment: This is a sample mmd title block, with
a field spanning multiple lines.
See the MultiMarkdown documentation for details. If pandoc_title_block
or yaml_metadata_block is enabled, it will take precedence over
mmd_title_block.
Extension: abbreviations
Parses PHP Markdown Extra abbreviation keys, like
*[HTML]: Hyper Text Markup Language
Note that the pandoc document model does not support abbreviations, so
if this extension is enabled, abbreviation keys are simply skipped (as
opposed to being parsed as paragraphs).
Extension: autolink_bare_uris
Makes all absolute URIs into links, even when not surrounded by pointy
braces <...>.
Extension: ascii_identifiers
Causes the identifiers produced by auto_identifiers to be pure ASCII.
Accents are stripped off of accented latin letters, and non-latin let‐
ters are omitted.
Extension: link_attributes
Parses multimarkdown style key-value attributes on link and image ref‐
erences. Note that pandoc's internal document model provides nowhere
to put these, so they are presently just ignored.
Extension: mmd_header_identifiers
Parses multimarkdown style header identifiers (in square brackets,
after the header but before any trailing #s in an ATX header).
Extension: compact_definition_lists
Activates the definition list syntax of pandoc 1.12.x and earlier.
This syntax differs from the one described above in several respects:
· No blank line is required between consecutive items of the definition
list.
· To get a "tight" or "compact" list, omit space between consecutive
items; the space between a term and its definition does not affect
anything.
· Lazy wrapping of paragraphs is not allowed: the entire definition
must be indented four spaces.[5]
MARKDOWN VARIANTS
In addition to pandoc's extended markdown, the following markdown vari‐
ants are supported:
markdown_phpextra (PHP Markdown Extra)
footnotes, pipe_tables, raw_html, markdown_attribute,
fenced_code_blocks, definition_lists, intraword_underscores,
header_attributes, abbreviations.
markdown_github (Github-flavored Markdown)
pipe_tables, raw_html, tex_math_single_backslash,
fenced_code_blocks, auto_identifiers, ascii_identifiers, back‐
tick_code_blocks, autolink_bare_uris, intraword_underscores,
strikeout, hard_line_breaks
markdown_mmd (MultiMarkdown)
pipe_tables raw_html, markdown_attribute, link_attributes,
raw_tex, tex_math_double_backslash, intraword_underscores,
mmd_title_block, footnotes, definition_lists, all_sym‐
bols_escapable, implicit_header_references, auto_identifiers,
mmd_header_identifiers
markdown_strict (Markdown.pl)
raw_html
EXTENSIONS WITH FORMATS OTHER THAN MARKDOWN
Some of the extensions discussed above can be used with formats other
than markdown:
· auto_identifiers can be used with latex, rst, mediawiki, and textile
input (and is used by default).
· tex_math_dollars, tex_math_single_backslash, and tex_math_dou‐
ble_backslash can be used with html input. (This is handy for read‐
ing web pages formatted using MathJax, for example.)
NOTES
[1]
The point of this rule is to ensure that normal paragraphs starting
with people's initials, like
B. Russell was an English philosopher.
do not get treated as list items.
This rule will not prevent
(C) 2007 Joe Smith
from being interpreted as a list item. In this case, a backslash
escape can be used:
(C\) 2007 Joe Smith
[2]
I have been influenced by the suggestions of David Wheeler.
[3]
This scheme is due to Michel Fortin, who proposed it on the Markdown
discussion list.
[4]
This feature is not yet implemented for RTF, OpenDocument, or ODT. In
those formats, you'll just get an image in a paragraph by itself, with
no caption.
[5]
To see why laziness is incompatible with relaxing the requirement of a
blank line between items, consider the following example:
bar
: definition
foo
: definition
Is this a single list item with two definitions of "bar," the first of
which is lazily wrapped, or two list items? To remove the ambiguity we
must either disallow lazy wrapping or require a blank line between list
items.
SEE ALSO
pandoc (1).
1.13.2 August 30, 2014 PANDOC_MARKDOWN(5)
